The birthplace of Jesus saw a rebirth of public celebration on Christmas Day after two years of war.
Since the savage Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in 2023 sparked relentless fighting in the Gaza Strip, the city of Bethlehem roughly 50 miles inland has been more of an armed camp for Christmas than a scene of pilgrimage.
And before President Donald Trump returned to the White House, peace didn’t have a prayer.
With a U.S.-sponsored ceasefire holding since October, however, Bethlehem boasted a giant Christmas tree in its Manger Square, according to The Associated Press.
And while the number of foreign tourists was only a fraction of what it was in times of peace, some residents told the AP that there were signs that tourism — the town’s economic lifeblood — was returning.
“Today is a day of joy, a day of hope, the beginning of the return of normal life here,” Bethlehem tour guide Georgette Jackaman, whose family has lived in the city for generations, told the news agency.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the patriarch of Jerusalem and highest-ranking Catholic Church official in the Holy Land, led the celebrations, bringing greetings from the small Christian community of Gaza, AP reported.
“We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,” he told a crowd of thousands, that included Christians and Muslims, according to the AP.
Scenes from Bethlehem were publicized to the globe by social media users, including some familiar faces:
In Bethlehem, for the FIRST TIME IN 3 Years, in the birthplace of Jesus Christ, they celebrate CHRISTMAS
MERRY CHRISTMAS pic.twitter.com/2PqOIQNS0g
— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) December 25, 2025
In the sweetest of waitings, wishing you a Merry Christmas Eve.
Bethlehem’s Nativity Grotto, where Jesus was born. pic.twitter.com/p6an47xaN5
— Muse (@xmuse_) December 24, 2025
Merry Christmas from Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square – the site of the birth of Christ!
“For today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord”. Luke 2:11 pic.twitter.com/XRinmwtwuO— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) December 25, 2025
“Merry Christmas from Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square – the site of the birth of Christ!” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump White House press secretary and current governor of Arkansas wrote in a post on X.
The Trump-backed peace in Gaza doesn’t mean the end of tensions in the region. Bethlehem is in territory under the official control of the Palestinian Authority, which is no friend of Israel or the United States — though it had allies in the Biden administration.
But this year’s celebrations of the birth of Jesus is at least an indication that what seems impossible can be brought about.
As one French visitor to Bethlehem told The Associated Press: “Christmas is like hope in very dark situations.”
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